New York Times Co Threatens to Close Boston Globe

The New York Times Co has threatened to end operations at the Boston Globe unless the Globe’s unions can agree to over $20 million in concessions, Reuters reported Friday.

Executives from the company made the demands Thursday morning, during a meeting with leaders of the newspaper’s 13 separate unions, the Globe reported.

Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten said that possible concessions for the paper could be pay cuts, ending pension contributions by the company, and eliminating lifetime job guarantees for veteran staff. The guild is the Globe’s biggest union representative, with over 700 advertising, business and editorial employees.

The Boston Globe is the 14th-largest U.S. daily paper by circulation, and was purchased by the Times Co in 1993, for a record setting $1.1 billion, the Associated Press reports.

The 137-year-old paper has lost money in recent years, and the Times Co is now $1.1 billion in debt.

Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz called the threat a “huge warning shot across the bow of the newspaper industry.”

“If this can happen to the storied Boston Globe,” Berkovitz added, “pretty much nothing is safe.

Saturday executives announced that the Boston Globe has 30 days to reach a decision.